Unemployment Benefits Is The New Welfare

When I saw 80% of the people at my place of work laid off after a matter of months of Obama taking over the helm, I was amused because I knew they supported Obama. On the other hand I felt bad for the couple of people who Didn’t vote For Obama being punished with no job because of the idiotic vote of their workmates.

I lived through the Carter recession. Back then, when my unemployment ran out after 16 weeks, I got one extension. When that ran out, it ran out. Today there are people who have been collecting for 2yrs.

I found work washing dishes on the weekends 16hrs a day for $30. I ended up going to the town for help. They gave me $90 a month to go towards rent. I helped a guy clear property for his new house. I made $50 helping a man move his family into his new house. I did what I had to do.

Every once in a while I would get a temporary extension on my unemployment for a few weeks but when that ran out, it ran out.

I looked for work almost every day. The day one of my applications paid off, I was in the food stamp office applying for food stamps.

Now fast forward to today. My company laid off 80% of the workforce. I know for a fact over 90% never bothered to look for another job. Some were called back to work a day here, maybe 3 days, a week. Most turned it down. My company had made a agreement that they wouldn’t tell unemployment they had turned down work.

It became so bad with everyone turning them down or not answering their phone, after one year they called everyone back even though there isn’t enough work there for everyone. I’ll lay odds, my company doesn’t agree to that the next time the layoffs happen. The ones called back said how much they enjoyed being home. A couple of them called in sick after just a few days after being called back.

During the last few snowstorms we had I noticed there was no one out there looking to shovel walks for money. Why should they? Like the news called it, the people were on “fun employment.”

Obama wants to extend benefits another 6 months. Why stop there? Lets make it 5yrs. This way they wouldn’t have to keep putting in bills to extend it.

Listening to the radio, a businessman called in and said he has a few openings and can’t find anyone to fill them. He said last year he had received 5 resumes.

There are jobs out there. They may suck but they are there. If I knew unemployment would last a lifetime maybe I wouldn’t had bothered to look for work. Knowing it was going to run out helps you become motivated and you realize a job, any job is better then nothing. If unemployment were cut off, people would find jobs. I served my country and ended up washing dishes to help me make it by. It was humiliating yet when you have $0 coming in, any job is good.